‘Monthly inflation within target’The central bank said the July inflation rate supports its view that monthly inflation will creep to within target range, with full year average just at or slightly below the lower bound for 2016. July inflation at 1.9 %Steady from June but double yr-ago; full-yr seen at 1.98%HEADLINE inflation in July held steady at the preceding month’s level of 1.9 percent although it was more than double the rate of 0.8 percent in July last year, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) released on Friday showed. Meanwhile, the average inflation rate for the first half of 2016 was 1.4 percent, well below the 2-4 percent that BSP set for the year. “With oil prices recovering slightly from the lows, we may see inflation for these sub indices trend back into marginal inflation ranges going forward. Core inflation also held steady at 1.9 percent this July compared with a year earlier.

Source: Manila Times August 05, 2016 15:45 UTC